Three men, 8-year-old ‘safe, uninjured’ after being lost on elk hunting trip in Owyhees

It was all hands on deck in the Owyhees as law enforcement and other agencies searched for four people who failed to return from a hunting trip over the weekend.

Three men and an 8-year-old headed out to the Owyhee Canyonlands early Saturday morning with plans to hunt for elk, Paula Rhodes, 911 coordinator with the Owyhee County Sheriff’s Office, told the Idaho Statesman.

They were to return the same day, but family members notified law enforcement on Sunday that they never did, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Family said on social media that they last heard from the hunters at 3 p.m. Saturday by text message, and thought the most likely spot they would have gone hunting was near Grasmere, east of Idaho Highway 51.

After 50-plus hours in the Owyhees, the group was located shortly before 2 p.m. Monday. Law enforcement said it could not provide immediate details on what happened to the hunters.

“They’re all safe, healthy and uninjured,” Rhodes said.

The Sheriff’s Office said earlier Monday that it had tried to ping the hunters’ cellphones but could not pick up anything. A sizable search and rescue force was employed, with a command post along Idaho 51, off Wickahoney Road.

Groups assisting were from Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue, Fish and Game, the Twin Falls Sheriff’s Office, the Sho-Pai Fire Department and the Bureau of Land Management. There also were volunteers searching, Owyhee officials said.

An Idaho National Guard helicopter and Civil Air Patrol airplane traveled Monday afternoon to assist with aerial searching, Rhodes said, and a member of the public was patrolling in a personal helicopter.